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Snowmobile Safety

Being prepared in avalanche territory can be difference between 'a rescue and a recovery' By Brett Prettyman The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/19/2008 11:03:35 AM MST

Riding his snowmobile has often left Jeremy Kallas breathless with thrill, but the 30-year-old from Pleasant Grove really stopped breathing after triggering an avalanche and being buried in Wasatch County on Sunday.
His friends watched as Kallas desperately turned and gunned his snowmobile in an attempt to outrun the slide, 500 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet deep. They watched as the force of the slide, which eventually ran 450 feet, threw Kallas from his ride.

Lucky for them, they watched helplessly no more. And they were prepared.
Before the avalanche had even stopped, one friend ran his snowmobile to where Kallas had disappeared (his body ended up about 75 feet from the marker).

A shovel, a probe and a rescue beacon, three pieces of equipment every winter backcountry explorer should have, and friends who knew how to use them saved Kallas' life. A buddy who knew CPR also helped.

Using their rescue beacons to find the signal from Kallas' beacon took 10 minutes. An avalanche probe confirmed something in the spot and his friends took five more minutes using four shovels to uncover Kallas, who was about 3 1/2 feet below the surface. At 15 minutes, Kallas was at the end of the time frame avalanche experts say is the difference between a rescue and a recovery.

"The only reason he is alive is because we were prepared and had the tools we needed to save him. I don't know how long it would have taken to find him without the beacon," said Dallas Edwards, one of the 10 other snowmobilers with Kallas when the avalanche happened. "He was on the brink of death."

Kallas, who was sore for a couple of days, but otherwise escaped injury free, is also convinced that without the proper gear he would have become the third snowmobiler to die in a Utah avalanche this winter.

"I could see the snow breaking and I turned around. I had the snowmobile pegged [going as fast as it could] and I could still feel the snow hitting me in the back," said Kallas, who had ridden on the same hill in the past.

He hit a block of snow that threw him from his machine and he remembers coming to a stop and not being able to move. Kallas prayed for his friends to hurry and find him. Then he blacked out.

"The next thing I remember is coughing, throwing up and the guys cheering for me," he said.

Having witnessed the power, confusion and chaos of a friend buried in an avalanche caused three snowmobilers with Kallas who did not have beacons to go out and buy them this week.

Two men, both buried under less snow than Kallas, died earlier this winter. Their bodies could not be found in time for a rescue.

Most of the state is currently rated in a low to moderate avalanche danger, but the Western Uinta Mountains remain at a considerable warning level. Early snow in October grew weak over time and December was a wet month.

"In the Central Wasatch and other locations the snow pack became deep enough to compress the weak layers and bridged over the danger," said Utah Avalanche Center forecaster Brett Kobernik. "In thinner snow pack areas like the Uintas the weak layer is still suspect."

Craig Gordon, a forecaster for the Utah Avalanche Center who focuses on snowmobile and youth education, said he believes more than 50 percent of snowmobilers wear at least an avalanche beacon when they head out.

"More and more people are prepared for self-rescues. It is an encouraging trend. Ten or 15 years ago snowmobilers with a beacon, a shovel and a probe would have been in the minority, but I'd say the majority of them are now carrying the right gear," Gordon said.

Snowmobilers are leading the number of national fatalities, but here in Utah the group in the most danger of dying in an avalanche are backcountry snowboarders who use ski resort lifts to access their favorite terrain. Snowshoers are the next most likely to be lost in a slide. In Utah, snowmobilers and backcountry skiers are just as likely to be caught in an avalanche.

Better equipment is helping more people get into the backcountry.
"Technology far out paces avalanche knowledge," Gordon said.

Kallas said he will never look at a potential avalanche slope quite the same.

"I will ride again, but I might be a little more hesitant and I will always check to see what the avalanche conditions are before I go," he said.

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